Turkey’s prime minister defended the recent bombing of Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq as military jets pummeled the area with fresh attacks on Sunday.

A spokesman for security forces in the Kurdish-run region, Jabar Yawar, said the jets bombed an area about 50 miles north of Irbil near the border with Turkey for about an hour and a half. He said there were no civilian casualties because the area was deserted for fear of Turkish attacks.

Yawar said he did not know whether any Kurdish rebels had been killed.